- Nov 14, 2017
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well entrepreneur took 2 years to finish 4 eps and this is more massive so 3 updates per year is my guess.
- Thread starter MisterMaya
- Start date
- Feb 25, 2024
- 1,287
- 2,635
How were the releases from this DEV
Entrepreneur
V1 - July 2021
V2 - October 2021 (3 months)
V3 - June 2022 (8 months)
V4 - June 2023 (12 months)
Steam - July 2023 (1 month)
Law School
Start - August 2023
Demo - December 2023
V1 - May 2024 (9 months)
Entrepreneur
V1 - July 2021
V2 - October 2021 (3 months)
V3 - June 2022 (8 months)
V4 - June 2023 (12 months)
Steam - July 2023 (1 month)
Law School
Start - August 2023
Demo - December 2023
V1 - May 2024 (9 months)
How were the releases from this DEV
It was actually like this
Entrepreneur
V0.1 - July 2021
V1 - October 2021 (3 months)
V2 - February 2022 (4 months)
V3 - June 2022 (4 months)
V4 - June 2023 (12 months)
Steam - July 2023 (1 month)
Last edited:
I'm aiming for a November release. At worst, it could be December, but November is most likely.
In terms of content, this episode will probably be slightly smaller in terms of size, since ep 1 had great numbers (3000 images-80+animations), but it will still be bigger than the biggest episode of The Entrepreneur
- Jun 15, 2023
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Law School Episode 2 - Progress update #13
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Hey everyone! We've got a big update today, so get ready!
To start off, I want to talk about something that's been on my mind lately. Last week, I mentioned some changes in the story, and while I’m excited about them, I realize now that some were a bit rushed. They're still in the works, but I didn’t take enough time to seamlessly integrate them into the story. Because of this, parts of the game felt like they didn’t quite fit. So, I've decided to go back and rewrite the whole first chapter to better incorporate these changes. I didn't write it from scratch of course, I already had the mapping I had previously wrote, but I started again with the new ideas in mind.
Previously, there were too many scenes that felt like a series of events just happening one after another instead of having a logical cause-and-effect flow. Before, there were too many scenes that felt like "Well this happens, and now this happens, and then this happens" instead of "This happens, therefore this happens, and it leads to this happening". Reading it aloud, I realized it felt almost dull. A compelling story needs to have clear reasons why one event leads to another. That’s when I knew I had to make some changes.
To address this, I've created a detailed outline for Chapter One, mapping out every event involving the love interests, story-related moments, and regular scenes. It took a lot of effort—three days, in fact—but now the story feels solid, and I’m really happy with it.
I'll need to revisit Episode 1 to make some adjustments, but nothing too drastic. Just adding a few scenes, creating more dialogue, and so on. It’s a bothersome task, but I’m glad I took the time to align the story with the new changes. Now, I have a clearer direction for how to tell this story in the best way possible.
I believe there’s always room for improvement with the game, and I'm constantly learning new things. Speaking of which, I recently figured out how to create god rays in the 3D software I use, which took me ages to learn.
The render isn’t fully done or edited, but I wanted to give you an idea of where I’m heading. I enjoy creating cinematic shots, especially during transitions between day and night or before a big scene. These shots, combined with my "transition animations", help immerse the player in the story. There’s still a lot of room for improvement, but I think it's a good start.
I also revisited a scene I had previously rendered because the initial result was... well, pretty bad. I’ll let you see the difference between the before and after.
Before:
And after modifying the lighting of the scenes:
I’m also getting more comfortable with Lightroom and how to use it to enhance my images, so here's what it looks like after Lightroom:
As you can see, there's a significant improvement. Like, night and day improvement. Night scenes have always been a challenge for me—finding the right balance between realistic lighting and highlighting key elements isn’t easy. But I feel like I've made good progress recently.
The only downside to Lightroom is that for some reason, I can't export in PNGs, or decide what bit depth I want to use, and instead I have to export in JPGs. This is a bit weird, and it bothers me because I lose quality, but I guess I'll find a way to work around that.
This leads me to my plans for Episode 1. I plan to revisit and improve the lighting for four night scenes: Aurora's insomnia scene outside, Mike in the auditorium, the library scene with Taylor, and the one with Caroline and Selena. Plus, there are a few other night renders here and there that I can tweak.
It’s a bit of work, but it’s something I’ve been meaning to do. There’s no point in releasing Episode 2 without fixing the things that bother me in Episode 1. It might sound like a lot, but I should be done within a couple of days—the scenes are already created; it’s mainly about adjusting the lighting and applying it across other scenes.
So, yeah, these changes have slowed down the number of new renders I’ve been able to create last week. But I wanted to make sure I didn’t leave these tweaks until the last minute, only to forget and delay the release due to “unforeseen events.”
That pretty much sums up last week: reworking the story and refining existing scenes.
Unfortunately, this did come at a cost—the number of 3D scenes I produced. I was thrilled with my progress last week, but today, I feel a bit embarrassed.
Now, let's talk numbers:
As you can see, I didn’t even hit 80 new renders this week. I met my quota for the first two days, then focused on the script and tweaking the lighting for already completed scenes. I managed to write one scene, but that was about it. No new animations were created since I already have plenty queued, and the rendering time is a bit daunting.
- 1,198 story statics
- 47 animations
- 26 scenes fully written
Still, I think it was a productive week. I plan to keep working on these scene modifications through Wednesday, or maybe even finish by tomorrow if all goes well.
In the meantime, I'll get back to work. Wishing you all a fantastic week ahead!
P.S. Yes, I know I was supposed to work on the event, but I'm swamped. I promise I’m trying my best to get to it this week!
See you soon,
MisterMaya
- Nov 24, 2020
- 66
- 202
Very good color grading, what's most important is color harmony, color separation. I think MisterMaya achieve this in "After" shots. Tho one thing... Ease off the halation.Law School Episode 2 - Progress update #13
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It is very overdone nowadays. And halation with more yellow tinge will look more nicely.
- Oct 8, 2017
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It seems that MrMaya did hit the tracks. There is indeed a lot of improvement in the graphics.Law School Episode 2 - Progress update #13
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I hope that both chapters will be published soon. There is still a massive cliffhanger over our heads......
- Oct 29, 2021
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- Apr 8, 2024
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- Jun 15, 2023
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Law School Episode 2 - Progress update #14
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Hey everyone,
I want to apologize for the delay in the update. I've been sick since Friday, and yesterday, after finishing my daily quota of scenes, all I could think about was getting to bed. I hope this render of someone's butt will make up for it!
Last week has been productive, despite the illness. I managed to hit my daily quotas each day, except for Saturday and Sunday, when I wasn't feeling well. I still worked, but I couldn't create as many scenes as I'd hoped.
At the start of the week, I spent Tuesday and half of Wednesday reopening scenes from Episode 1 to improve the lighting. I knew I could do better, and I think I did. Re-rendering the images and animations will probably take a couple of weeks, but it's worth every bit of the effort.
Here are some before-and-after comparisons:
None of these new images have been edited in Lightroom yet; they're straight out of the 3D software, so I believe there's still a lot of room for improvement. They may be less bright, but in my opinion, they do a much better job of capturing the atmosphere than their predecessors.
I've been focusing only on creating scenes lately, without any new animations. My rendering station has been dedicated solely to rendering animations for the past two weeks, which is a sign that I have enough for now. Not that there could ever be too much animation, but with a release date for Episode 2 in mind, I'm trying to be mindful of the time it takes to render them.
Yesterday, I completed the final scene of Day 4 in-game. I'm now working on Day 5, which is one of the biggest days of the episode, with 10 scenes and a Facegram roam planned. I believe I can tackle it in about two weeks. I have a clear idea of what needs to be done, and two weeks is a realistic timeframe to finish it. After that, Day 6 is coming up. Even though it only has two scenes, it will be as extensive as Days 5 or 3. One of these scenes is a big event happening in Stocklinburg, similar to the dorm party in Episode 1 .That scene alone could have 400-500 renders. I don't plan to make it a freeroam event, as I aim to keep it to one or two per chapter, and there's already one planned for Episode 3. I think Day 6 will also require about two weeks. Day 7, however, is just a few images and two animations, which I can complete in a day.
I'm aiming to finish all these remaining scenes before October 8th, when I'll be leaving for nine days. My goal is to come back after the holidays and focus on adding the remaining scenes for Episode 1 (as mentioned in the last update), creating the Facegram assets, coding, and then postwork. After that, I’ll be able to send the game to testers in mid-November and aim for a release in late November or early December. That's my goal, at least. I'm confident Episode 2 will be live in 2024. I'm seeing the end of this episode's development, and I'm still on track.
Now, let's talk numbers:
As you can see, I've made decent progress, considering I spent two days revisiting old scenes for modifications and spent much of the remaining time working while sick. I estimate that Episode 2 will have around 2,300 to 2,400 images, which is a solid number compared to the 3,000 images in Episode 1. But since I’ll be adding a few more scenes to Episode 1, we’ll see how that final count turns out.
- 1,304 story static images
- 47 animations
- 29 scenes fully written
Thank you all so much for your support lately! I'll keep giving my best, even as I work on getting my health back on track.
Wishing you all a great week ahead!
MisterMaya
- Nov 1, 2019
- 97
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Mmm not the biggest fan of blackmail plots specially if we haven't done anything wrong... Do Aurora and Andrea have any redeeming qualities if you pursue them as a LI or are they just awful bitches?
I was liking it up until that point but that came out of nowhere...
I was liking it up until that point but that came out of nowhere...
- Jul 25, 2017
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im holding out to form a opinion on Aurora there seems to be more than what meets the eye but the evil twin not so much.
- Nov 14, 2017
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- Oct 29, 2021
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- Nov 1, 2019
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So having played until the end of the episode there are good and bad things but overall I am invested in the story and will definitely follow next chapters, you can tell he put a lot of effort in his first chapter and I hope it pays off.
My observations:
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- Jul 26, 2023
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Aurora is LI, Andrea is Not.
MisterMaya is adding 3 more LIs (but won't say who yet), so she might become one, (my personal guess is she won't).
- Jul 26, 2023
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There is also a rewrite going on with parts of Episode 1, that will be changed to make the story flow better with the release of Episode 2. What affect this has on the Aurora path specifically we will have to wait and see. So I'm reserving judgement on her for now.
- Jul 25, 2017
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o really had no idea not really keeping up with the devlogs on this just been glancing at the render count haha. So gonna be worth doing a replay then